In a communication system, such as in a wireless communication system, two devices may communicate by establishing and maintaining a communication link. For example, a wireless station and user equipment (UE) may communicate. A fundamental aspect to this communication is link adaptation. For example, the wireless station transmits to the UE in a manner tailored to the channel conditions experienced by the UE. The wireless station is able to perform link adaptation based on the UE transmitting to the wireless station one or more feedback messages. The feedback message can include, among other things, channel quality indicators (CQIs). The UE generates the CQIs based on its estimation of existing channel conditions. In a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) communication system, the UE may provide a CQI for each layer (e.g., data stream) of communication.
In existing solutions, however, where per-layer CQI feedback is provided, the UE transmits the feedback message without regard to the content of the feedback message and/or without recognizing relationships between the content of the feedback message, the corresponding channel conditions, and the need for error protection. For example, the UE may transmit the feedback message with inadequate error protection. In this regard, information included in the feedback message may be lost or improperly decoded by the wireless station, which can result in poor communication between the UE and the wireless station. The UE may also transmit the feedback message with an unnecessarily high level of error protection, thereby wasting communication resources.